From DE 10 2007 012 834 A1, a method for realizing a cornering light function of a vehicle headlamp is known, wherein the headlamp can be swiveled essentially about a vertical swivel axis. This makes it possible to adapt the light cone of the headlamp to a course of a roadway. Here, the swiveling speed of the headlamp is changed adaptively to the driving manner of a driver by means of detecting a driving state. However, it has proven disadvantageous that the realization of such a driving state detection is very complicated, because many state parameters of the motor vehicle must be known. These include, among others, the identification of the state of, e.g., the steering angle of a steering wheel, the speed and yaw rate of the motor vehicle, and the positions of the accelerator pedal, brake pedal, and gear shift.